Human Rights

Jailed for Blogging

by Sheldon Rampton — October 15, 2004 - 10:00pm

Juan Cole reports that Omid Memarian, an Iranian writer, journalist, weblogger and social activist has been arrested, making him the fourth journalist to be arrested in an apparent Iranian crackdown on reformist journalists and webloggers who are seen as enemies of the regime. Cole urges people to complain to the Iranian government or their interests section in Washington, DC.

Main Source: 
Informed Comment weblog, October 16, 2004

Freedom of the Press, to Obey

by Diane Farsetta — September 9, 2004 - 10:00pm

After seven AIDS activists disrupted a Pennsylvania campaign appearance by President Bush, "Secret Service agents ... supervised the arrests and detention of the activists and blocked the news media from access to the hecklers. ...

Main Source: 
Washington Post, September 10, 2004

Super Sue Me

by Diane Farsetta — September 7, 2004 - 10:00pm

British environmental activists David Morris and Helen Steel, found guilty of defaming McDonald's in 1997, are challenging English libel law before the European Court of Human Rights.

Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), September 8, 2004

They Fought the Law and the Law Won

by Sheldon Rampton — September 2, 2004 - 10:00pm

"As Republicans inside Madison Square Garden praised the NYPD for keeping order," writes Michelle Goldberg, "grim stories of preemptive, arbitrary arrests, filthy jail conditions and long detentions without access to attorneys circulated among protesters, lawyers and quite a few ordinary New Yorkers who were arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ...

Main Source: 
Salon.com, September 3, 2004

Block the Vote

by Sheldon Rampton — August 25, 2004 - 10:00pm

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights leaders say the Republican Party is mounting a campaign to keep African-Americans and other minority voters away from the polls this November. "In recent years, many minority communities have tended to align with the Democratic Party," states a new report cosponsored by the NAACP and People for the American Way.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, August 26, 2004

Press Conference From Hell

by Sheldon Rampton — August 25, 2004 - 10:00pm

"I don't know what the news is from the rest of Iraq or even what's going on with the governor of Najaf," writes Chris Albritton, a freelance journalist who has been covering the fighting in Iraq. "I do know what's happening with the police department, however. They're raiding the Sea of Najaf hotel and rounding the 100 or so journalists at gunpoint and subjecting them to mass arrest." Albritton describes his recent experience, when police "raided the hotel and forced all the journalists out onto the street. We were terrified. The cops yelled at us and pointed their weapons toward us.

Main Source: 
Back to Iraq, August 26, 2004

Secret Justice

by Sheldon Rampton — August 23, 2004 - 10:00pm

After nearly three years of confinement at Guantanamo Bay, Australian national David Hicks goes on trial for alleged terrorism before a U.S. military court.

Main Source: 
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 24, 2004

Pre-Emptive "Traitor" Baiters

by Diane Farsetta — August 15, 2004 - 10:00pm

"Federal agents and city police are keeping tabs on people they say might try to cause trouble at the Republican National Convention, questioning activists, making unannounced visits and monitoring Web sites and meetings. ... The intelligence unit of the New York Police Department ...

Main Source: 
Associated Press, August 16, 2004

Not a Client to Bring Home to Mom

by Diane Farsetta — August 9, 2004 - 10:00pm

Eritrea "signed Alexander Strategy Group, a firm with strong Republican ties, to a contract worth more than $300K a year to improve its ties with the United States." According to Amnesty International, "torture, arbitrary detention, 'disappearances' and ill-treatment of political prisoners" are common in the Horn of Africa na

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily (reg. req'd), August 10, 2004

Al-Jazeera Gets a Time Out

by Diane Farsetta — August 7, 2004 - 10:00pm

"To protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq," Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ordered the Al-Jazeera television network's Baghdad offices closed for one month. The closure "will give them the chance to readjust their policy against Iraq," said Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib.

Main Source: 
CNN, August 8, 2004
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